Sir William Stanley – Turncoat or Loyalist..

UPDATED POST FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI @sparkypus.com Sir William Stanley crowning Henry Tudor with the fallen King Richard’s crown in the aftermath of the Battle of Bosworth.  Unknown artist.. It is well documented how, through the treasonable and treacherous actions of Sir William Stanley at Bosworth, Richard III lost his crown and his life. He…

Urswick, the red rose and being the saviour of Henry VII….

Well, it’s a fair bet that anything involving David Starkey is going to be anti-Richard III. If it also concerns Christopher Urswick, it’s a foregone conclusion. Both crop up in the Sutton House Lecture of (I think) 2019. It seems that “historian and TV and radio presenter David Starkey” (they forgot the comedian bit) gave…

The Rise of the Stanley family.

In the late 14th Century, the Stanleys were a gentry family, their power base lying chiefly in Cheshire, notably in the Wirral. Their ancestry might fairly be described as ‘provincial’. There were certainly no kings in their quarterings. This is not to say they were unimportant, but their influence was of a local rather than…

Settling the Bosworth Debt….

With the denizens of Hades gathering to do their worst, here is a horror tale of Sir William Stanley’s final Hallowe’en, when retribution snatches him at last. “Settling the Bosworth Debt” is the story of what happened to William when he was confronted by some terrible truths about Henry Tudor. Friday, 31 October, 1494, Hallowe’en,…

Was Elizabeth Woodville a witch….?

  Royalty and magic (black or otherwise). Well, the connection isn’t new, after all, King Arthur had Merlin. And when it suited one’s enemies, a charge of witchcraft was always a guaranteed spanner in the works. The first section of this article this article deals with Elizabeth Woodville, and is perhaps of most interest to…

Bosworth – only ranked 9 out of 9….!

Bosworth, a victory for treachery – and for cowardice, because Henry Tudor didn’t raise a finger, but lurked at the back, behind a protective screen of bodyguards As far as Ricardians are concerned, the most important (and tragic) medieval battle was Bosworth, but 22nd August 1485 only makes it to number nine of nine! See…

Perkin Warbeck made an ILLICIT play for power….?

“….Perkin Warbeck himself is a famed pretender to the throne, having made an illicit play for power in the 15th century by taking on the persona of a royal heir who had mysteriously disappeared….” So it is claimed on this site.  Um, an illicit play for power? Come on, that throne was occupied by the…

Tudor’s path to Bosworth took him through Powis….

Here’s a tale of treachery  and the cowardly theft of a throne. Such a shame though, because Powis Castle today is extraordinarily beautiful. I lament that Tudor‘s invasion with his foreign army didn’t take him into a particularly gluey and bottomless Welsh bog, or over a cliff on to jagged rocks in the middle of…

The strange story of the Stanley boy….

Yes, very strange, because there are conflicting histories of this effigy and tomb shown in the image above. The tomb is in St Peter’s Church, Elford, Staffordshire, and both it and the effigy are rather small and therefore generally believed to be that of a child. The story is that the dead boy was John…

A sensible TV study of what could have happened to the boys in the Tower….

While idling through the guide of Amazon Prime TV, I came upon a 2010 documentary series called Mystery Files. It was the first series, and episode four was entitled Royal Murders. Yes, it was the boys in the Tower. Well, I debated about watching it, fearing another yawn loaded against Richard, but no! It was…